The Dems seek to neutralize the mass movement behind Zohran. Only a pro-Palestine united front can prevent this.

The popular base behind Zohran Mamdani is real, and has great revolutionary potential; the risk is in how this potential could become misdirected. Mamdani was able to beat Cuomo because of how big of a pro-Palestine element there is within the masses, particularly Gen Z. And the idea that Zohran is a change-maker has gained serious traction in dissident circles, including ones that aren’t necessarily on the left; Jimmy Dore and his community have joined in on the excitement around Zohran. This is why when we point to the problems with Zohran, we need to take a different posture than simply saying “this candidate is bad actually.”

That would be like making it your whole mission to “stop Trump,” while denying the massive trend towards class consciousness that the MAGA movement represents. We should recognize the problems with the leaders of reformist movements that gain popular momentum, while not discarding the movements themselves; otherwise we’ll isolate ourselves from the masses. I see why Zohran has gotten popular support, like I see why Trump gained that support; there’s a reason why so many of the people see something in him. So my point is not that Zohran has contradictions, and therefore we should tear him down; my main point is that the system could take advantage of these contradictions, and use them to further an agenda that undermines the pro-Palestine movement.

When Zohran affirms the “Israel has a right to exist” idea, or condemns the Al Aqsa Flood Operation, these are certainly bad things; but the problems they present go beyond anything Zohran himself has the potential to do. The reality of Zohran’s situation is that if he becomes mayor, he’ll be navigating an environment which will no doubt force him to acquiesce; like with Bernie Sanders, the strength of Zohran lies not in what the leader is willing to do, or what they can do within the system, but in the mass movement that’s formed behind them. In the potential for the movement to become a force unto itself, break from reformist politics, and organize towards the defeat of the ruling class.

Many of the people who’ve gravitated towards Zohran would not have done so if they hadn’t seen him say a ton of things beyond the “I support Israel’s right” line; they know that this candidate represents a trend which was produced by the rise in pro-Palestine sentiment. So when I critique him for saying this, my primary concern is not that he’ll convince anti-Zionists to become Zionists; there’s a large section of the masses which have become immune to Zionist propaganda, and the narrative managers have been forced to give up on converting them anyhow. The risk is instead that the Democratic Party could divert the Zohran movement, and prevent it from becoming a force unto itself; which would enable the Dems to divert the larger pro-Palestine movement.

What our ruling class seeks to do with the Palestinian struggle is make it captured by liberal Zionist NGOs, more than it’s already been. The struggle’s enemies want to kill any potential projects at building popular organizational power, thereby making way for forces that claim to be “pro-Palestine” while promoting Zionism. A key part of this mission is to separate the concept of supporting Palestine from the concept of supporting the Palestinian resistance; which requires selling an idea of the “two-state solution” that’s compatible with the campaign to exterminate the Palestinians.

When Hamas says it wants a two-state solution, it means this in a fundamentally different way from how liberal Zionists mean it. The resistance seeks two states because that will be a necessary incremental step towards the ultimate full dissolution of the Jewish ethno-state. Realistically the occupier won’t disappear all at once; so creating a Palestinian state alongside it is how to build Palestine’s strength back up, until what remains of “Israel” becomes unable to continue. Liberal Zionists see two states as a way to preserve the existence of “Israel,” where the indigenous people can be made to permanently compromise with the colonizers. For this reason, as long as liberal Zionists hold decisive influence over the pro-Palestine movement we won’t even get a compromise. The only way we’ll ever get a Palestinian state, in any form, is if the resistance wins; the occupier will never willingly give away its territories, so it will need to be forced into that.

If the Democratic Party gets its way, the hope which Zohran has created for progress towards Palestine’s liberation will be used to placate the movement. To neutralize the forces that would otherwise keep organizing in solidarity with the resistance, giving more control to the “pro-Palestine” actors who seek to maintain the Zionist entity. Bernie Sanders and other social democrat spokespeople are the ones who fill this role within the anti-Palestine counterinsurgency.

When pressed, Sanders has refused even to endorse the BDS movement; which is indicative of what the NGO-industrial complex seeks to do. The liberal Zionist PAC J Street, which backs Sanders and is connected with the biggest Zionist “peace” NGOs, promotes a path of compromise and nothing else. The EU-tied Palestinian Peace Coalition, for example, seeks to “reinstill in the Israeli and Palestinian peoples the hope that it is possible to reach an agreement that will serve their respective national and personal interests and aspirations.” Which, in the absence of supporting divestment or the resistance, amounts to endless discussions that will never bring the occupation closer to ending.

This is the nature of “pro-Palestine” Democratic Party politics: a trap that’s designed to stop any real potential for defeating the occupiers. Even if Zohran is better than someone like Sanders, he’s functioning within the rigged game of reformism, and he’s already been pressured into conceding key parts of the argument to the Zionists. What the ruling class hopes Palestine supporters do is simply keep cheering on Zohran, or other reformist figures who are sympathetic to our cause, without building the organizational front we need. It will not be so easy to neutralize us, though; the mass energy for a pro-resistance movement is there.

I understand why a Palestine supporter would support Zohran; it makes sense when he’s a representative of the Palestinian movement who has substantial momentum. And I welcome these supporters into the next efforts at constructing a united front for Palestine.

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